Author’s Note

While The Mozart Girl is a work of fiction, Nannerl was a real person, and much of this novel is drawn from real events in her life. My research for this novel came from many books, but two of the most useful were the letters that Leopold Mozart, Nannerl’s father, wrote to their landlord, Lorenz Hagenauer, during the 1763–1766 Grand Tour, and a biography of Nannerl written in German by Eva Rieger. A List of Sources is included for readers who want to learn more about Nannerl.

The dates of the major life events for Nannerl and Wolfi are listed in the book’s Chronology. In the novel, I changed the date of Nannerl’s real birthday to accommodate the Mozarts’ travel schedule. A number of the documents that I have mentioned are real. You can still find Notebook for Nannerl in music stores or at the library if you would like to learn the minuets that Leopold Mozart composed to teach Nannerl how to play the clavier. The book is complete with Leopold’s notes on Wolfi’s progress written at the bottom of some of the pieces.

Nannerl’s diary is also real. For many years she kept a diary which Wolfi sometimes shared. The diary entries in this novel, however, are all imagined. The diary was eventually inherited by Wolfgang’s widow. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize its importance. She lost pages, or cut them up and gave them away to friends and collectors. Those pages that remained were gathered together and published in German.

The newspaper excerpt praising Wolfi and Nannerl is a translation of an actual article written by Melchoir Grimm, the famous editor of the Correspondance littéraire, a literary journal read by many European intellectuals.

The children’s dog and doll are also mentioned in the historical accounts. The Mozarts had a fox terrier who was named Bimberl. The children seemed fond of pet names: Bimberl was also nicknamed Pimperl, Miss Bimbes or Miss Pimsess. The doll, Salome Musch, was named after the family cook. Years after the children had stopped playing with it, the doll was brought down from the attic and given to Nannerl’s son to play with.

Besides the Mozart family, many of the other characters in the novel are also historical. Katherl really was a friend of Nannerl’s. Her full name was Maria Anna Katharina Gilowsky, and she was the eldest daughter of the Salzburg court surgeon, Andreas Gilowsky. Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782), was the son of the famous Johann Sebastian Bach. The meeting in Paris, however, is invented. The Mozarts didn’t actually meet Johann Christian Bach until they reached London, where the prominent and popular composer had a great influence on Wolfi’s style of writing music.

Many of the other musicians mentioned are also historical. Johann Baptist Wendling (1723–1797) was a famous flautist who played in the Mannheim orchestra. Wolfi and Nannerl played a concert at Schwetzingen Palace with the Mannheim orchestra on July 19, 1763. Johann Schobert (1735–1767) was a composer and famous player of the harpsichord. He actually did express his jealousy of Nannerl’s precise and excellent playing of very difficult pieces by Johann Gottfried Eckhardt (1735–1809), another composer. When in Coblenz, the Mozarts spent a good deal of time with the family of the Baron Kerpen. His seven sons and two daughters all played one or two instruments—the clavier, violin, cello—or sang.

In addition, many of the details I have recounted of the events of the Mozarts’ tour I discovered in historical documents, particularly in Leopold Mozart’s letters. During their first musical tour, in 1762, the Mozarts visited Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, home of the Empress Maria Theresa. Leopold Mozart writes, in a letter of October 16, 1762, that Wolfi “jumped up on the Empress’ lap, put his arms around her neck and kissed her heartily.” He tells about the broken wheel in his letter of June 11, 1763. And the Mozarts were stranded in Wasserburg, where Wolfi tried the organ for the first time. Nannerl’s organ concert is, however, imagined.

You can still visit Nymphenburg Palace in Munich. At the Mozarts’ concert for Maximilian the Third, Elector of Bavaria, they actually did run out of time for Nannerl because Wolfi used up all the time improvising and playing a concerto for violin and clavier. Leopold mentions in his letter of June 21, 1763, that “the Elector said twice that he was sorry not to have heard my little girl.” Because of the Elector’s comments, Nannerl went back to Nymphenburg to play for the Elector where she was “warmly applauded.” The Mozarts met Maria Sophia, sister of the Elector, at the dinner at Nymphenburg. (The rest of Sopherl’s story is imagined.)

The little portable clavier was purchased from J. A. Stein in Augsburg so that Wolfi and Nannerl could practice on their travels. The Mozarts arrived at Versailles on Christmas Eve, 1763, and were invited to a public court dinner on New Year’s Day. Leopold writes that Wolfi “was requested to stand all the while beside the queen, to talk constantly with her and entertain her, and frequently to kiss her hands, and to eat right beside her of the dishes which she graciously handed to him from the table […] I stood by him, and on the king’s other side […] stood my wife and daughter.”

The restrictions imposed on young girls and women that are recounted in this novel are true. Both the organ and the violin were seen as instruments to be used by men working as professional directors of music in courts or churches. Since women were never allowed to hold such jobs, girls were not encouraged to play the organ or the violin, or to learn composition or improvisation. Leopold Mozart gave these lessons to Wolfi but not to Nannerl. Nannerl was given lessons in playing the clavier, with and without the keyboard covered by a cloth, and in singing. Though none of Nannerl’s compositions were published, we do know that she composed pieces for the organ and clavier.